Ukrainian drones attack oil tanker off RussiaA Ukrainian drone attack set fire to a Liberian-flagged oil tanker carrying 23 Indian crew members off Russia’s Black Sea coast on Tuesday, with all those aboard later rescued, Russian authorities said. Russia’s transport ministry said the tanker, Aframax Rio, was attacked by “naval drones” on Tuesday, triggering a fire in the Black Sea near the Russian resort city of Sochi.

The ministry said there were no injuries among the crew, according to Reuters. The ministry said emergency crews rescued all 23 people aboard the tanker.

🔥🚢A massive fire is burning near the Russian Black Sea port of Sochi in Krasnodar Krai after an oil tanker was hit. co/52jRzvYAvg— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) October 6, 2026 Firefighters were initially unable to tackle the blaze because of its intensity, but the ministry said they had sufficient means to fight the fire once it became less intense.

Indian crew rescued as tanker catches fireThe vessel was carrying a crew made up entirely of Indian nationals. The tanker was reported to be on fire off Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, with a large cloud of black smoke visible from Sochi.

“According to atmospheric air quality monitoring data, pollutant concentrations in the Sirius Federal Territory remain many times lower than the maximum permissible concentrations and pose no threat to health,” Dmitry Plishkin, head of the Sirius federal territory administration, said. The Russian transport ministry said the tanker was attacked by an unmanned vessel.

Attack comes amid wider Black Sea shipping risksThe incident took place amid a series of attacks involving commercial shipping in the Black Sea since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Both Russia and Ukraine have heavily targeted commercial shipping around the Black Sea during the conflict.

Russia has in recent days attacked grain vessels carrying Ukrainian goods near the coast of Romania. Earlier on Tuesday, a Russian strike on a merchant vessel flying the Marshall Islands flag in the Black Sea killed at least one crew member and injured several others.

The vessel was carrying rapeseed oil and caught fire after its superstructure was damaged. Two other merchant ships, the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan and Palau-flagged Able, were also hit by drones of unknown origin about 112 kilometres off Bulgaria’s coast.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied that Ukrainian forces were behind those strikes near Bulgaria. Sochi coast placed under restrictionsVideos and photographs circulated on social media showed large flames burning offshore and a thick column of black smoke over Sochi.